A pretty solid game on night one of the season, especially the first half which was back and forth until the home team pulled away with 9 straight for an 8 point lead at the break. Penn St. Altoona managed to pull close again halfway through the second half but couldn't get over the 4 point hump. Buena Vista was led by big Ruben Sabia who powered in 20 points and missed a double-double by one rebound. On the other side, Penn St. Altoona's 27% from 3pt was not a happy stat for frank. westcoast and Buena Vista hold serve at #2 in the rankings.

Sim Blowout watch: Polytechnic covered the spread and only lost by 43 to Austin, 103-60 while York (PA) did even better in a 88-62 loss to Texas Lutheran.

GotN#18 Rivier (1-0)(jack_duck) at #16 Webster (1-0)(mschulte24)
Only two games between ranked teams tonight and I'm going with the one with slightly closer ranks. Both teams beat up on Sim teams the first night and come into this game looking to stay in the rankings. This is the first match up between these coaches. The visitors are favored by just a single point so it should be a close game.

...Buena Vista (32-1, Elite 8 last season) they've got great upperclass leadership, solid Ath/Def and while the Speed is "only" above average rather than elite, the guards will be able to run with most anyone.

...Wentworth (30-2, Sweet 16) take the walk on out of the equation and we're looking at upper 40s/low 50s in the Ath/Spd/Def department and the high BH/Pass combo will keep turnovers way down for this group.

...Whittier (21-10, Round 2)...incredible combination of Ath and Def. Like Buena Vista, the speed might be a step slower than usual for a frontrunner, but there's plenty to make up for it.

...Willamette (25-5, Round 1) Another team that has great BH/Pass combination to keep possession of the ball. Great speed on this team, the athleticism might be a touch concerning though.

Last NightRivier 58 Webster 62
Rivier led for the first 17 minutes of the first half and most of the first 13 minutes of the second half. That brings up a good tip for all you beginning coaches out there: try to get your team to lead for the LAST few minutes of games. Webster went on solid defensive runs to end both halves and held on for a 4 point win with Rivier missing a few 3ptr's in the last minute. mschulte24 and Webster got balanced inside and outside scoring with three players in double-figures, and the win bumps them up to #10 in the rankings. jack_duck's Rivier was lead by Aaron Hendrick with 19 points, though a little better than 2-7 from 3pt might have prevented the loss and fall from the top 25.

Also considered: Colorado held on for a close 72-65 victory over Trinity (TX) to climb to #14, newly ranked #18 Wittenberg scored the 64-54 road upset over previously ranked Centre, and #7 Susquehanna got a hard-fought 78-68 road win despite the incredibly sophisticated coaching genius at Wooster.

Sim Blowout watch: Roanoke had no trouble covering the 72 point spread against John Carroll ONLY losing by 53, 108-55 while E. Nazarene demolished the 58 points in a not-at-all embarrassing 68-87 loss at Old Westbury.

GotN#7 Susquehanna (2-0)(zeuspole) at #5 Ursinus (2-0)(barjaz)
The only game tonight between ranked teams should be a seriously good battle with the winner probably jumping up near the top ranking. zeuspole leads the series between these two 9-7 and is only a 1 point underdog on the road. I feel like I should include some professional wrestling-like excited hype yelling here. Just use your imagination and pretend I did.

Also considered: #1 Millsaps at defending champ Penn St. Altoona, Louisiana at #2 Beuna Vista, St. Joseph's at #18 Wittenberg (Putting Wittenberg here yesterday got them a win, see if it works again)

Sim blowout watch: St. Olaf is getting 56 points while visiting #6 Texas Lutheran and Clarkson is a 42 point road dog at Washington (MD).

Last NightSusquehanna 57 Ursinus 55
Susquehanna took a 1 point lead half way through the first and stayed in front the rest of the way, although the margin never got above 8 and most of the time it was 4 or less. Susquehanna committed a potentially disastrous turnover with 25 seconds to play and up by two, but Carl Oliveira for Ursinus missed a jumpshot with five seconds left and they couldn't foul before time expired. Oliveira led barjaz's Ursinus with 23 points in the losing effort though that final miss hurts a bit. zeuspole and Susquehanna got most of their scoring from their front court with both starting bigs snagging double digits. With the win, Susquehanna gets bumped up to #4 in the rankings while Ursinus is down to #8.

Also considered: Millsaps rallied in the last four minutes to pull out a 75-62 victory over Penn St. Altoona and maintained their #1 ranking, #3 Beuna Vista held off Louisiana 77-60, and #16 Wittenberg keeps rolling with a close win over St. Joseph's 50-47.

Sim Blowout watch: St. Olaf covered the 56 point spread against #7 Texas Lutheran, 62-100 and Clarkson got within the 42 at Washington (MD), 78-93.

GotN#1 Millsaps (3-0)(brianxavier) at #10 Webster (3-0)(mschulte24)
I was close to picking our #1 team yesterday so I figured it's best not to pass brian up two days in a row. Tonight Millsaps travels to also-undefeated Webster, putting brian's perfect 2-0 record against mschulte to the test. Millsaps is a 5 point road favorite.

Also considered: #25 John Carroll at #13 Colorado, #16 Wittenberg at Kalamazoo, and #19 Wentworth Tech at Emmanuel (the D3 school, not the popular 80's Mexican singer)

Last NightMillsaps 74 Webster 50
Millsaps put together a couple impressive defensive streaks in the first half to open up a 14 point lead at halftime and then comfortably cruised the rest of the way. brian and Millsaps got double figures from four players and showed why they're at the top of the rankings. mschulte and Webster suffer their first loss of the year and drop down to #19.

Also considered: Colorado got by John Carroll 73-66 to remain undefeated and move up to #8, Kalamazoo shot themselves in the foot at the free throw line to keep #15 Wittenberg's winning streak alive 74-72, and Emmanuel upset the previously ranked Wentworth Tech 78-68.

Sim Blowout watch: Carroll easily halved the spread against #21 Chapman 56-85 and our friends at Polytechnic did the same at #11 Willamette 58-86

GotN#6 Whittier (3-1)(windixies) at John Carroll (3-1)(whit6r)
Tonight we have a match up of two 3-1 teams as whit6r tries to upset the ranked opponent, improve on his 3-6 record against windixies, and get revenge for windixies taking the school that most looks like whit6r's user name. So much drama.

Also considered: #19 Webster at #23 Texas Lutheran, St. Joseph's at #7 Elizabethtown, and Calvin at #15 Wittenberg (Yup, going to keep picking Wittenberg as long as it keeps working)

Sim blowout watch: It's an exciting night for the blowout watch as not one but two teams set a new high for the watch this season. Maine, Farmington is getting a solid 77 points as they visit #3 Greensboro while Linfield also gets 77 when hosting #13 Capital. I can't wait to see which simmy does better (or worse).

The Blue Streaks are whipping out the bobble head of Whit6r tonight. In case you haven't seen it. The bobble head is balding with beeds of sweat on it's forehead, black circles around the eyes and a look of worry on it's face from previous encounters against coach Windixies.

Posted by pseudochamp on 5/18/2013 11:44:00 AM (view original):Last NightMillsaps 74 Webster 50
Millsaps put together a couple impressive defensive streaks in the first half to open up a 14 point lead at halftime and then comfortably cruised the rest of the way. brian and Millsaps got double figures from four players and showed why they're at the top of the rankings. mschulte and Webster suffer their first loss of the year and drop down to #19.

Also considered: Colorado got by John Carroll 73-66 to remain undefeated and move up to #8, Kalamazoo shot themselves in the foot at the free throw line to keep #15 Wittenberg's winning streak alive 74-72, and Emmanuel upset the previously ranked Wentworth Tech 78-68.

Sim Blowout watch: Carroll easily halved the spread against #21 Chapman 56-85 and our friends at Polytechnic did the same at #11 Willamette 58-86

GotN#6 Whittier (3-1)(windixies) at John Carroll (3-1)(whit6r)
Tonight we have a match up of two 3-1 teams as whit6r tries to upset the ranked opponent, improve on his 3-6 record against windixies, and get revenge for windixies taking the school that most looks like whit6r's user name. So much drama.

Also considered: #19 Webster at #23 Texas Lutheran, St. Joseph's at #7 Elizabethtown, and Calvin at #15 Wittenberg (Yup, going to keep picking Wittenberg as long as it keeps working)

Sim blowout watch: It's an exciting night for the blowout watch as not one but two teams set a new high for the watch this season. Maine, Farmington is getting a solid 77 points as they visit #3 Greensboro while Linfield also gets 77 when hosting #13 Capital. I can't wait to see which simmy does better (or worse).

Last NightWhittier 58 John Carroll 67
Whipping out the whit6r bobble head worked like an absolute champ last night as John Carroll scored the upset with a 9 point victory over ranked Whittier. That must be one creepy-looking little ceramic dude because Whittier came out of the locker room scared stiff, missing their first six shots on their way to 39% from the floor and a disappointing 0-11 from 3pt. John Carroll used that poor shooting to open an early lead and stay in front the entire game with three scorers in double figures. Whittier and windixies drop to #13 in the rankings while John Carroll, whit6r, and the bobble head climb up to just outside the top 25.

Also considered: #14 Texas Lutheran cruised to an easy 87-61 victory over Webster, St. Joseph's upset #15 Elizabethtown 70-57, while the dream of a perfect season ended for previously ranked Wittenberg on a last-second shot by Calvin 48-46.

Sim Blowout watch: Linfield kept it respectable most of the way against #17 Capital only losing by 14, 66-80. But the real drama was with Maine, Farmington who scored just enough down the stretch to cover the massive 77 points as #3 Greensboro showed no mercy, 118-52.

GotN#3 Greensboro (5-0)(tilldog28) at Penn St. Altoona (3-2)(frankgrimes1)
Greensboro takes a bit of step up in competition from last night from a 77 point underdog simmy to our defending national champion. tilldog and Greensboro look to stay undefeated as frankgrimes and Penn St. Altoona continue their rough defense schedule. I'm not sure if any bobble heads will be involved.

Also considered: Lots of good games to choose from today: Wooster at #6 Ursinus, #12 Centre at #15 Elizabethtown, #13 Whittier at Denison, #23 Howard Payne at #18 Sewanee

Sim blowout watch: Carroll is getting 63 points at home against #14 Texas Lutheran and Goucher (love that name) is a 32 point underdog hosting #17 Capital.

In an exciting back-and-forth game, reigning champ Penn St. Altoona held on to a late lead and knocked Greensboro off the unbeaten list. Penn St. Altoona got balanced scoring across the lineup but the real key was 15-22 from the line, besting a disappointing 12-27 showing by Greensboro. (Insert corny old coach's wise words on the importance of free throws here.) frankgrimes and Penn St. Altoona climbed back into the rankings at #21 as a result of the win while tilldog and Greensboro slip a mere two places to #5.

Sim blowout watch: Somewhat of a close call as Carroll covered the 63 points against #19 Texas Lutheran 61-114 but that was nothing compared to the shock of the season so far as Goucher scored the very first Sim blowout watch victory by holding off Capital 91-80. I really hope Capital coach buckeye101 isn't angry with me for possibly jinxing him.

GotN#17 Emory (5-1)(phalla) at Emory and Henry (6-0)(meme4574)
Three games between ranked teams tonight but no way could I resist this one, it's a battle of the Emory's! Or is it Emories? Emoreez? Whatever. Regardless, it should be an intense battle to determine which Emory is better and whether or not Henry is invited to the party. phalla leads the all-time series 2-0 and the home team is favored by just a point.

Sim blowout watch: Husson is getting a solid 53 points when they visit #15 Chapman and in a special Sim-on-Sim match up, UMass Boston is a 40 point underdog as they visit fellow Sim-coached Brockport. Fancy.

Last NightEmory 63 Emory and Henry 61
It was a close thrilling game throughout when Emory and Henry got a clutch 3ptr to tie the score at 61 with just thirty seconds to play. Emory held for the last shot but a fadeway bounced off the rim with three seconds left. But then Emory's Joseph Stevens came up huge and tipped the ball back in for a two point lead with just two seconds. That's right, it was a massive Emory board at the offensive end for the win. "Emory board"... see what I did there? You better believe I was hoping for an important rebound in this game so I could use that joke, only way it would have been better is if the rebounder was named Henry. Timothy Lane led the way for Emory and phalla with 22 points and they moved up to #14 in the rankings. Emory and Henry and meme4574 suffer their first loss of the season, despite having an Henry-advantage the entire game.

Also considered: #2 Buena Vista held off #23 Sewanee 68-53, now #15 Wooster continued its winning streak with a 70-57 win at John Carroll, and #3 Susquehanna stayed undefeated beating Hardin-Simmons 85-70.

Sim blowout watch: Husson managed to cover in a 58-100 loss at #19 Chapman as did UMass Boston in our first Sim-on-Sim blowout watch battle, 56-70.

GotN#2 Buena Vista (7-0)(westcoast22) at #1 Millsaps (7-0)(brianxavier)
Absolutely no question around which game to pick tonight since this is probably the game of the entire non-conference season. It's the top two teams in the country, both are undefeated, and the spread is dead-even at a take your pick. What more could you ask for? brianxavier has won the only previous match up between these two and this should be a great one. Winner gets the top ranking, loser probably drops a couple places, cries just a little bit, then takes out anger on the next couple teams they play.

Great game last night for Millsaps. Glad to win, but think home court may have been the difference. Either way, I think both teams may meet again in NT. I'm hoping Buena Vista is as far away as possible.... will be interesting to see how rest of the season plays out.